YKPK publicly supports Try for president

YKPK publicly supports Try for president

JAKARTA (JP): The National Brotherhood Foundation (YKPK)
announced yesterday its preference to see Vice President Try
Sutrisno nominated for president.

The chairman of the nationalist-oriented foundation, Bambang
Triantoro, told journalists that Try was the most experienced and
acceptable person to succeed President Soeharto.

"We have no other choices but Try Sutrisno, because he is very
close to Pak Harto. Try is a statesman with experience and a
flawless record and, as far as we know, is open to ideas and
arguments," Bambang said after a meeting with leaders of the
Golkar faction in the People's Consultative Assembly.

"Those characteristics fit the requirements for our future
president, who will have to heed advice from others because he
would not be able to cope with the country's uphill challenges in
the coming years alone," he added.

The foundation's announcement came a week after it demanded
all five factions in the Assembly not to "force" the 76-year-old
Soeharto to accept renomination for another five-year term.

Bambang said YKPK, which consists of retired military
officers, politicians and other public figures, presented a
formal statement of its support for Try to the Assembly which
will elect a president and vice president in March.

Bambang, a former Armed Forces chief of sociopolitical
affairs, said Soeharto should maintain his chief position in
Golkar's powerful board of patrons to keep the government running
on the right track.

Try, whose military career has seen him as an aide to Soeharto
and the Armed Forces chief, had a greater chance to take over the
presidential job from Soeharto, compared to Megawati
Soekarnoputri or any other candidates, according to Bambang.

Megawati, the ousted chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic
Party and daughter of Indonesia's first president Sukarno,
declared her readiness to be nominated for the post last weekend.

"I highly appreciate Megawati's announcement as a courageous
move to break the country's long-time political stagnation, but
let's talk about real politics," Bambang said.

Armed Forces spokesman, Brig. Gen. A. Wahab Mokodongan, when
asked to comment on YKPK's statement concerning Try, said
yesterday that everybody was free to announce their support for
potential presidential or vice presidential candidates.

"The people may announce their support for as many possible
nominees as they want, even 100 candidates," he told reporters
after a meeting with chief Indonesian media editors at the Armed
Forces Merdeka Barat headquarters.

But he said the announcements of support must follow
established procedures and not go against the constitution and
the existing mechanism.

Asked about whom the Armed Forces would nominate as a
candidate, Wahab said it would only forward one name and that it
would wait to announce its candidate until the Assembly's general
session in March.

Commenting on the increasing calls for fundamental reforms as
an answer to the prolonged monetary crisis, Wahab retorted saying
it was not in the "vocabulary" of the Indonesian people.

"If your shirt only needs to be shortened in the sleeves to
make it more comfortable, why should you take it off and burn it
just to make yourself satisfied," he remarked.

"If the government has weaknesses, we cannot blame them on the
government as an entity," he said. "There might be only some
officials in the government who have made mistakes."

"We, therefore, cannot say that the whole government must be
replaced," he argued. (imn/amd)